Click to chat with Brum Bot, our AI-powered virtual assistant. ×
Lord Mayor’s Office | Birmingham City Council

Lord Mayor’s Office

Staff in the Lord Mayor’s Office support the Lord Mayor, Zaker Choudhry, by managing his diary. They also co-ordinate:

  • major events, such as Remembrance Day
  • meetings with regional, national and international visitors

Mayors and Lord Mayors

Birmingham has had a Mayor (and elected council) since 1838. One of the most famous was Joseph Chamberlain (1873 to 1876), who brought a clean water supply to Birmingham from the ÉlanValley, and redeveloped the town centre.

Birmingham achieved city status in 1889.

The title of Lord Mayor was granted on 3 June 1896, and the first Lord Mayor of Birmingham was Sir James Smith.

The right to appoint a Lord Mayor is a relatively rare honour, even less frequently bestowed than city status. Only 23 cities in England have Lord Mayors:

  • Birmingham
  • Bradford
  • Bristol
  • Canterbury
  • Chester
  • Coventry
  • Exeter
  • Kingston-upon-Hull
  • Leeds
  • Leicester
  • Liverpool
  • City of London
  • Manchester
  • Newcastle upon Tyne
  • Norwich
  • Nottingham
  • Oxford
  • Plymouth
  • Portsmouth
  • Sheffield
  • Stoke-on-Trent
  • City of Westminster
  • York

Since the Local Government Act 1972 (section 3.1), the Lord Mayor must be a member of the council. Previously, under the Local Government Act 1933, the Lord Mayor could be elected from ‘those qualified’, which roughly equated to all those entitled to vote in the area.

In Birmingham, an agreed formula is applied so that a candidate is presented to the council from the major political groups in a frequency proportional to their representation on the council.

Lord Mayors act as Chair of the Council, and are non-political and non-executive during their term of office. This means that they do not represent any political party while in the role and do not hold any decision-making powers.

As the First Citizen of Birmingham, the Lord Mayor represents Birmingham and its people.

Each Lord Mayor is installed (appointed) into office at the council Annual General Meeting (AGM, usually held in May, and stands for one year.

In normal circumstances, the Lord Mayor becomes the Deputy Lord Mayor for the following year.

Page last updated: 28 July 2026

Feedback button